In 1763, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the British Empire's participation in the Seven Years' War came to an end. Under the terms of the treaty, France ceded millions of square miles to Britain, including all of Canada and most of their lands east of the Mississippi River. With these vast additions came new legislation to help regulate the expanded British territory. The earliest of these acts was the Proclamation of 1763.
There was immediate tension between the Native American tribes (who had been friendly with the French colonists) and the new English settlers, sparking several armed conflicts. Already in debt from the Seven Years' War and not wanting to have to spend more to put down these frequent insurrections, the British passed the proclamation that sketched a line roughly along the Appalachian Mountains, across which no one was allowed to settle. They hoped this would prevent any future Indian conflicts.
An act like the Proclamation of 1763 was unsurprisingly scorned in the colonies. A sizable portion of the population, particularly those who lived on the western frontier of the colonies, considered it a breach in their freedom. They disliked a governing body telling them where they could and could not settle. As a result, the earliest seeds of contempt for British rule were planted. In fact, the Proclamation of 1763 was one of the earliest catalysts of the patriotic movement that would culminate in the American Revolution.
The British were not trying to be unreasonable with the passing of this law and did see themselves as such. The Proclamation of 1763 was designed to save money and stabilize the expansion of the empire, but it did not do these things at the expense of the American colonists. There was still much land to be had east of the Appalachians, and when this land ran out, Parliament would almost surely have expanded the Proclamation Line farther west. But this conflicted with the already developing American exceptionalism of the colonists.
More than half a century before the idea of "Manifest Destiny," Americans already had the belief that they could expand, as far west and as rapidly as they wanted, with no consequences. They believed that the mere presence of land granted them some right to take it, regardless of the indigenous population already living there or stipulations by the government forbidding them to do so. As a result, they paid almost no heed to the Proclamation Line, continually settling beyond it and expanding the frontier of civilization.
Here is a short video discussing the Proclamation of 1763. I think it offers an interesting perspective on how insolent Americans were in their disrespect to British authority and their own self-righteousness.
The Proclamation of 1763
In 1763, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the British Empire's participation in the Seven Years' War came to an end. Under the terms of the treaty, France ceded millions of square miles to Britain, including all of Canada and most of their lands east of the Mississippi River. With these vast additions came new legislation to help regulate the expanded British territory. The earliest of these acts was the Proclamation of 1763.There was immediate tension between the Native American tribes (who had been friendly with the French colonists) and the new English settlers, sparking several armed conflicts. Already in debt from the Seven Years' War and not wanting to have to spend more to put down these frequent insurrections, the British passed the proclamation that sketched a line roughly along the Appalachian Mountains, across which no one was allowed to settle. They hoped this would prevent any future Indian conflicts.
An act like the Proclamation of 1763 was unsurprisingly scorned in the colonies. A sizable portion of the population, particularly those who lived on the western frontier of the colonies, considered it a breach in their freedom. They disliked a governing body telling them where they could and could not settle. As a result, the earliest seeds of contempt for British rule were planted. In fact, the Proclamation of 1763 was one of the earliest catalysts of the patriotic movement that would culminate in the American Revolution.
The British were not trying to be unreasonable with the passing of this law and did see themselves as such. The Proclamation of 1763 was designed to save money and stabilize the expansion of the empire, but it did not do these things at the expense of the American colonists. There was still much land to be had east of the Appalachians, and when this land ran out, Parliament would almost surely have expanded the Proclamation Line farther west. But this conflicted with the already developing American exceptionalism of the colonists.
More than half a century before the idea of "Manifest Destiny," Americans already had the belief that they could expand, as far west and as rapidly as they wanted, with no consequences. They believed that the mere presence of land granted them some right to take it, regardless of the indigenous population already living there or stipulations by the government forbidding them to do so. As a result, they paid almost no heed to the Proclamation Line, continually settling beyond it and expanding the frontier of civilization.
Here is a short video discussing the Proclamation of 1763. I think it offers an interesting perspective on how insolent Americans were in their disrespect to British authority and their own self-righteousness.